A Titanium Kinship
by AnonymousPorter
Summary: Dean and Castiel have been friends for as long as both of them can remember. Neither party can recall a time in which the other wasn't a part of their lives. And even if they could, they wouldn't want to. Follow Dean and Castiel through their journey and see how their bond develops. With some interesting variables. [Comment and criticise, criticisms are very much appreciated!]
1. Reception

**Reception:**

On the first day of Reception, you'd be lucky to see a child who wasn't apprehensive towards going into their first day of school. However, some were more worried than some. One of those children was Dean Winchester. Dean has already moved houses three times, and yet he was only four years old. But his father, John, decided that their family should have a more permanent settlement for when Dean started school. Their little family consisted of John, Dean and Dean's little brother Sam, or 'Sammy' as he Dean likes to call him. Today would mark the first day that Dean hasn't spent alongside his father, so of course he was concerned. "I don't want to go!" Dean whimpered.

"Dean, what's so scary about the school? The teachers seem nice, and you can make loads of new friends!" John said this Dean, in order to try and coerce his son into the establishment.

"It looks really big! That teacher over there," Dean pointed to the middle aged man standing in front of the doors. "He looks really scary…" Dean's voice was beginning to become shaky and unsure when he muttered those last words.

"He's not your teacher, so you'll be fine. Now go! Have fun! I'm sure you'll make some friends!" John gave these last words before leaving his son with the fate of the Reception teachers.

* * *

After Dean entered the building, he decided it wasn't so bad. They got given fruit and milk at playtime and all they did was play games and read stories. However, one Dean was still concerned about was the other children. He didn't know where to start, there were so many new faces and they all looked as if they had established friendships already. Dean continued his first day in Reception, and when the bell rang at 3:25pm which signalled the end of the first day, he was ready to go home and tell his father how well the day had gone. But then he noticed something in the corridor which led to the exit. He approached the huddled mass and began to look at it. He then realised it wasn't an object, but another person.

"Hello?" Dean inquired. "Are you okay?"

Dean didn't get a response, so he tried again.

"Hello?" He repeated, with a tinge of irritation but also concern. (Well, as much concern as the four year old could muster.) This concern spouted from his protective nature of his little brother and he felt as if it was necessary here.

However, only then was it that he heard the muffled sound of sobbing. Dean crouched down to look at the person's face to see if it was anyone he recognised. (Admittedly, he still hadn't made any friends because he a little apprehensive towards barging into another friendship group.)

"Yeah?..." The other little boy turned his head to face Dean's, but refused to make eye contact.

"Are you alright?" Dean asked.

"I got lost… Now I can't find my mom…" The small boy on the floor began to sob again.

"C'mon, it's alright. We're really close to the door." Dean reassured. "I'll take you there if you want." Dean then stuck out his hand with little grace, due to only being four years old. But little did Dean Winchester realise, that this single gesture would spark something far larger.

Only then did the boy reveal his face fully to look Dean in the eyes, he also grabbed onto Dean's hand and allowed Dean to help him up.

"What's your name?" Inquired Dean, realising that throughout this child's ordeal he had failed to recognise who he was.

"Castiel…" The boy replied with apprehension and worry oozing in his voice. "What's yours?"

"Dean. Dean Winchester." The boy beamed, being proud of his name. "We should be friends, y'know."

"Yes… I think I would like that." Castiel managed a weak smile in amongst the redness of his face due his ordeal.

With that Dean led Castiel to the entrance and earned himself praise off the Reception teacher, which remarkably he just shrugged off like it was nothing.

"He's going to be an interesting one." The teacher thought to herself.

* * *

The friendship that Dean managed to kindle with Castiel continued after that first day. Since neither of them really had made any other friends, they decided to just stick together. This led to the duo being nearly inseparable at school, after three weeks it was obvious they were good friends. They confidently talked with each other and even began to confide with one another. This completely juxtaposed the shaky and worried children that both Dean and Castiel were on the first day of Reception.

"Hey Cas!" Dean remarked with his usual friendly tone.

"Cas?... But Dean, my name is Castiel." Said the other boy in a puzzled voice.

"I've decided that Castiel is too hard to say, so I shortened it to Cas. Is that okay with you?" Asked Dean with genuine concern for his friend's comfort.

"Of course it's fine, I just didn't expect it." Cas giggled.

"Well that settles it, you're now Cas!" The other boy announced, as if he had discovered the secret to life.

* * *

The months rolled around and autumn turned into winter into spring and then finally summer. The summer term had rolled around and Dean and Cas were ready to take on the final day of Reception. It was a big day because they would find out if they were in the same class as each other for the next six years.

"Dean?" Cas asked.

"Yeah Cas?" Dean replied, grabbing onto Cas' hand, in preparation to walk to assembly.

"What if we don't end up in the same class next year? What will we do then?" The other boy asked, worrying that his only friend may be taken away from him.

"We'll still see each other loads, at playtime, lunchtime and in some lessons too!" Dean reassured his worrying companion.

Even after Cas' little moment of concern about his and Dean's friendship, they still stood strong. And to their pleasant surprise, their worrying was in vain and they were both put in the same class. With their doubts and concerns resolved, both boys were ready to tackle their first proper year of school. Year 1.


	2. Year 1

**Year 1:**

After not seeing each other for the entire of the summer holidays, Dean and Cas were itching to see each other again. The separation, while it may not have been torture, was certainly unpleasant, because they'd rather be together than not together. So, at 8:30am, Dean arrived at the playground in which he had never set foot on before. The playground roamed upon and shared by big kids and little kids alike, those in years 1 to 6. Even though the prospect of having eleven year olds running around with his five year old self scared Dean, he was also excited. He was excited in more ways than one might he add. However, his main focus was to find Cas, the one whom he had not seen for an entire six weeks.

After about five minutes of wandering around the playground aimlessly, in an attempt to find Cas. Dean finally gave up and sat on one of the benches which surrounded a huge oak tree which resided in the playground. This spot was strategically chosen due to the fact that it directly faced the entrance gate to the playground, which enabled Dean to watch and wait for his friend, without looking like a weirdo. After around another five minutes, at around 8:40am, Dean spotted his brown haired, blue eyed companion lazily strolling through the gates onto the playground. As much as Dean wanted to scream and run over to him, he leisurely ambled his way over to Cas. However, once he was in a few feet of his friend, this excitement couldn't be contained anymore. Dean ran over to his friend and enveloped him in a hug. The little 'oof' of air escaping Cas' lungs from being impacted by the blonde haired boy was easily heard due to the force in which Dean applied with his embrace.

"Cas" Dean spouted, with little care of who was watching.

"Hello Dean." Replied the winded boy in the monotone manner he usually abided by. However, it was clear he was happy to see his more energetic friend.

"How were your summer holidays? Did you miss me?" Dean said through the smile which was plastered across his face.

Castiel was a little taken back by these questions. Nobody really asked much about Castiel due to his quiet nature, but Dean always seemed to be able to make him talk.

"They were okay; it was really boring towards the end though! And of course I did! You're not my best friend for no reason!" Cas beamed. "How were your holidays?"

"They were okay I guess, I had to spend a week in Wales though, and all it did was rain. So I ended up just doing nothing for a week." Dean commented. "But other than that, I had an alright time, I wish we could have saw each other though."

Cas agreed quickly. "Yeah, six weeks without seeing each other was really boring."

The bell for the beginning of school then rang, and all the children began to line up in their classes, ready to proceed to their first day of the year.

"C'mon Cas, let's go line up!" Dean said before taking hold of Cas' hand and leading him towards where he could see the year 1 teacher that they met before the summer holidays.

* * *

It was coming up to Christmas time, and per usual, everyone was feeling the Christmas spirit. Lights were being strung up everywhere with tinsel and other Christmas decorations plastering the walls of peoples' homes and being put onto trees. However, the Christmas spirit didn't only reside in peoples' homes, it also extended to school. So, the school had been decorated to fit the holiday spirit too. Many people were titivating around and making more fuss than was necessary, but for Dean and Castiel, it was just another normal day a school. Only now, the days were slowly being filled with a little more anticipation for Christmas.

"Cas! It's only nine days until Christmas!" Dean basically screamed. Dean Winchester was very excited for Christmas, not because of the presents however. He, unlike many other six year olds didn't get too fussed over presents. He just enjoyed the festivity of it. Well, and the Christmas lunch which came along with it too; but he kept that part to himself.

"I know Dean! You count the days down for me, I don't even need an advent calendar." Cas retorted. Even at the meagre age of five, Cas has developed a sense of working sarcasm. "What did you ask for Christmas this year?"

"Nothing much really, I asked for a new football and a Gameboy Advance. But I will only get the Gameboy if Santa thinks I have been really good!" Dean said. "What about you?"

"I asked for a Gameboy too, but I asked for some books mainly. I really like reading." Cas replied.

"I think reading's boring…" Dean muttered.

"I think football's boring though." Cas chuckled.

"At least I can teach you love football! No amount of money or Christmas wishes could get me interested in books!" Dean remarked.

"We'll see about that." Cas smirked. Then he turned around and looked out of the window at what the commotion was that had suddenly formed on the playground outside. While he did this, Dean pulled out a small gift from his backpack and held it in his hands waiting for Castiel to pivot his way back to facing Dean.

"Hey Cas. Happy Christmas!" Dean shouted.

"What's this?" Castiel questioned in a very confused manner.

"It's your present!" Dean stated.

Castiel was in a state of shock, he had gotten a present for Dean but hadn't expected a present in return. This caught him completely off guard. "For me?..." He whispered, completely in awe.

"Of course, who else would it be for?" Dean inquired, worried that his blue eyed companion wouldn't like it.

"Wow… Thank you, Dean…" Castiel said, still awe stricken. When he finally managed to shake off some of the amazement, he rummaged through his bag and found his gift. "For you… Happy Christmas Dean!"

"Wow! Thanks Cas!" Dean replied. However, he then did something that Cas hadn't really saw coming. He stretched out his arms and pulled the slightly smaller boy into a hug.

Even though it startled him, Cas put his arms around Dean and returned the hug. Neither of them thought much of it. They'd seen adults and family hug so they thought it was completely normal.

* * *

Christmas Day came and both boys opened their gifts. Surprisingly however, they both did something similar. They both left each other's gifts until last, due to them being somewhat special. Cas got Dean a football shirt which he was very pleased with. Dean got Cas a series of a books in which Cas very much appreciated. However, they both agreed that these gifts were special because they were from their best friend.

* * *

The summer term once again rolled around, and everyone was excited for the six weeks holidays. However, attitudes were beginning to change and some of the children were beginning to develop backbones and started to voice their opinions. It'd gotten past the stage were the children were timid and quiet. Some of the children began to say things about the other children, and one of the targets was Castiel due to his quiet and reclusive attitude towards anyone but Dean.

"Hey Cas, what're you doing? Playing princesses and fairies with the girls? Or didn't they want you?" One boy seethed while Castiel was sitting at a table waiting for Dean to come out.

"No. I am waiting for Dean." Cas replied, confused as to why this boy was talking to him.

"Why do you two talk so much? Is he your boy-friend?" The other boy sniggered, putting emphasis on boyfriend.

"What's a boyfriend?" Cas inquired, very much naïve in the field of 'boyfriends'

"It's when you hang around with one boy all the time and you kiss and hug!" Laughed the child.

"But me and Dean don't do that…" Castiel remarked, still confused. He then proceeded to get up and leave to avoid the conversation.

"Hey, don't walk away from me!" Roared the boy Cas felt threatened by. He then proceeded to push Castiel over, but unbeknownst to him, Dean had seen this action and quickly rushed over to help.

Dean ran up to the boy and punched him square in the face and knocked him over. The boy then regained his poise, looked at Dean with a look of pure terror and fled to grass him up to a teacher.

"Are you okay Cas!?" Dead inquired, clearly worried out of his mind from the sight of his sobbing companion. "What did he say to you?"

Cas snivelled, and then took a deep breath. "He said that I acted like a girl and that they didn't want me. Then he said that I was your boyfriend and that we kiss and hug all the time." This all was said with tears flowing down the boy's cheeks.

"Never mind what he said, it's not true. And he's just jealous we're good friends and that he doesn't have any." Reassured Dean.

"Dean Winchester! Get over here, NOW!" Roared the teacher. "Is it true you punched this boy?"

"Yes miss, but he-" Dean was cut off trying to defend himself and his friend.

"I don't care what he did, it's not appropriate to punch other children. Tomorrow you will serve detention instead of having lunch time for misbehaviour, I am VERY disappointed in you." The vicious teacher condemned.

"Yes miss…" Dean said. He then turned to the boy. "Sorry for hitting you…" Dean then walked back over to Castiel and calmed him down.

* * *

The next day came and Dean went off at the start of lunch time to serve his detention. However, Cas followed him because he didn't really have any other friends and didn't want to be alone at lunch time, just in case the boy came back.

"Cas, you can't come with me. They'll think you're in detention too!" Dead said.

"But Dean, who will I sit with? I don't really have any other friends…" Cas grimaced at the thought of the boy coming back. "What if he comes back?"

"He definitely won't come back for a while after that punch, and I don't know what you'll do. But I need to do this detention and I don't want you to get in any trouble for something I did." Dean said, trying his hardest to stop his companion from getting himself into trouble.

"Okay then… Just please don't get detention again? This lunch time will be really boring without you." Said Cas, with his exasperation clearly noticeable.

"I'll see you at the end of lunch time, I promise." Replied Dean, who then put his palm out towards Cas. "High five?" He smiled.

"Okay... I'll see you at the end of lunch time. You'd better not forget Dean!" Castiel stated, and then he returned the offer of a high five.

A teacher was walking down the end of the corridor and noticed this exchange and was intrigued by the kinship these boys had formed. He'd noticed that they were particularly fond of each other and difficult to separate. "I reckon they'll be friends for a very long time" Muttered the man to nobody in particular.


	3. Year 2

**Year 2:**

Year 2 started pretty normally with little excitement and the two boys settled into their usual routines, only with a different teacher in a different classroom. However, the something different happened towards the end of the first half term.

"Hey Cas, are you busy over the weekend?" Inquired Dean.

"Not really why?" Asked Cas.

"Well, I wondering if you wanted to come over mine for a bit?" Asked the blonde haired boy, with a little bit of caution in his voice as he said.

"Come over yours?" Replied Cas, confused about the manner in which Dean phrased his sentence, due to him being quite unfamiliar with colloquial terminology.

"Yeah, like come over to my house? My Dad said it was fine." Dean continued.

"Sure, we do live across the road from each other. I'll ask my mom when I get home." Replied the smaller boy, who couldn't hide the excitement in his voice. "I've never been to someone else's house before…"

"I've been to family's houses, but never a friend's." Replied Dean. "But it's boring only seeing you at school. And all the fun games get banned by the dinner ladies." Dean pouted, clearly irritated by the choices of those in charge of the playground.

"Haha, true. They'll probably ban running soon!" Chuckled Castiel.

"Don't say that! They will ban it!" Remarked Dean.

After Dean had Castiel over his house at the weekend, they regularly began to go to each other's houses after school and at weekends. They liked this because it meant they could do what they wanted without other kids and the teachers interfering. Even though Dean was pretty popular amongst the other children, he preferred to hang around with Castiel rather than the other kids. This was in no form as sense of pity, because Cas got along with many of the other children too, but both of them felt just that little bit more secure when they were with each other.

* * *

It was just another normal day at school for the two days, or so they thought. One morning in a Maths lesson, Dean noticed one of the girls, called Cassie looking at him funny. She giggled and suddenly turned her head to her friend, Dean thought nothing of it. However, later in that lessons a piece of paper got passed round to him.

"Who's this from?" Dean whispered to the boy with glasses who was the last person before Dean.

"Apparently it's from Cassie, I bet she fancies you!" Chuckled the boy, who then returned to his Maths questions.

Dean opened the piece of the paper up and it had a couple of sentences in the neatest writing a Year 2 could do, with two boxes below. He read it aloud to himself. "Hello Dean, I really like you. Will you be my boyfriend? Yes? Or No?"

Dean thought very little of the note and absentmindedly ticked the 'yes' box and then told the boy with the glasses to pass it back to Cassie. He then caught sight of Cas across the room giving him a confused look, so Dean mouthed 'I'll tell you at playtime' but Cas didn't catch on, so Dean pointed to the door of the playground which was visible through the glass window at the side of the classroom.

* * *

As Dean and Cas along with their fellow year 2 classmates were dismissed onto the playground, Cas and Dean immediately went to the corner near the kitchen, because nobody ever went there because it smelt weird.

"What did Cassie give you?" Cas asked, getting to the point.

With a somewhat suspicious tone Dean replied, "She gave me a note asking me to be her boyfriend and I ticked the yes box, because it'd have been rude to say no. Why?"

"What!? Dean, that means you actually have to play with her and all the other girls, playing princesses and tea parties!" Cas exclaimed.

"What?... Why can't she play with us?" Dean exclaimed also.

Just as Dean said this, his girlfriend sauntered over with a smile going up to both of her ears. She came and grabbed onto Dean's arm and tried to drag him away from Cas.

"Hey Cassie, where are going?" Dean questioned.

"We're going to play princesses, and you're going to be my prince." She replied, in a stern voice.

"But what if I don't want to? What if I want to play with Cas?" Dean questioned, feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the whole situation.

Cas, even though he and Dean were best friends, didn't really know what to say in this very awkward situation, so he just shrunk into the background and remained quiet, hoping that his companion would find his way out of his predicament.

"But you HAVE to play with the girlfriend and do whatever she says, and you can't break up in the first two weeks, or you'll never be able to have another girlfriend again!" Cassie seethed, with her friends giggling behind her.

Dean looked shocked, he was completely unaware of the predicament he'd gotten himself into, but nonetheless accepted the terms, because he didn't want to cause any more trouble. He'd also hoped to have another girlfriend sometime in the future. But there were two things he knew for certain. One, these next two weeks were going to be hell. And two, he'd be dumping her the first second he could.

"Okay then…" Dean reluctantly agreed. "Let's go play princesses..."

"Yay! We're going to be the best boyfriend and girlfriend ever!" Cassie exclaimed. "We're going to have so much fun." She was completely unaware of Dean's remorse towards to the situation.

Cas chose this moment to do something, he could clearly see that his friend was about to be subjected to two weeks of torture, which started today. So he thought he might as well try and endure the pain with Dean, to make it a little more bearable for him.

So then, Cas locked eyes with the blonde haired girl behind Cassie and asked the faithful words, "Hey Sophie, want to go out with me?" He said, while flashing a smile to make it a little more convincible. However, he unlike Dean, knew what he was getting into.

Sophie gasped, she hadn't expect the boy she'd had a crush on for weeks would ask her out, "Yes Castiel! I'd love to!" she beamed.

Cassie then decided to speak up, "That's great! We can all play princesses together!" Then she, along with Sophie grabbed their boyfriends and proceeded to the other end of the playground.

While playing princesses, which in Cas and Dean's eyes was basically torture. Dean questioned Cas about his actions. "Do you actually fancy Sophie? Why didn't you tell me?" Dean questioned, somewhat annoyed at his friend's inability to tell him about this girl he apparently fancied.

"No, I don't. But I didn't want you to have to spend two weeks alone with a bunch of girls. And I would be bored." Cas admitted. Leaving Dean completely shocked.

"Wow… I can't believe you did that for me… You're such a good friend." Dean said, still in shock from his best friend's valiant actions.

"That's what best friends do!" Cas replied with a smirk on his face.

Dean then, without thinking grappled Cas into a hug, completely forgetting about their 'girlfriends' behind them, but thankfully they didn't see.

One of the teachers on duty on the playground saw this exchange of embraces and smirked, she recognised the two boys from her Reception class from two years ago, "Hmm, still going strong it seems." She remarked, not really to anyone but herself.

* * *

Two weeks had passed since Cas and Dean had immersed themselves into the world of girlfriends for the first, but certainly not the last time. So when the Monday rolled around, both Dean and Cas had a little more reason to go to school that day. They were both relieved that they could finally break up with their girlfriends, since it'd been two weeks, and that meant that they would be able to get another girlfriend, but still be able to break up with their current ones.

"Hey Cassie, hey Sophie" Dean called.

"Hey Dean!" They both chirped. "How're you and Cas today? Ready to play princesses again?" Cassie said, smirking.

"Actually, we're here to break up with you." He remarked, wiping the smirk off both the girls' faces.

"Really? Castiel too?" Sophie seethed

"Y-y-yes…" Cas muttered.

Suddenly, Sophie burst into tears and Cassie went to console her. Cas felt bad, but he knew that it'd save him for months of torture, while Dean just looked at them with a blank expression.

"You're mean Dean!" Cassie screamed. "Also, you can break up with girlfriends whenever, I just said the two weeks to make sure you didn't run away!"

Dean looked at her with a shocked, but also a betrayed look, he looked at Cas and then walked off in a hurry, annoyed at the fact he wasted two weeks of his life.

"Dean! Wait" Cas called.

"I can't believe she lied to us!" Dean roared. "And she called, ME mean…"

"Well Dean, at least it's over now. Girls suck!" Cas remarked.

"Yeah, I know. At least we play, just us two again?" Reassured the slightly older boy.

"Yeah! We can! Now, want to play princesses?" Cas chuckled.

"I never want to see another princess in my life!" Laughed Dean.

* * *

The summer term once again crept up on the boys, and now that they were seven years old, they began to start going places with each other. Such as the park, or the cinemas. But one day, Cas suggested a new form of entertainment when he was over at Dean's house.

"Hey Dean, when you come over to my tomorrow, want to go swimming?" Cas inquired, while the two boys were playing some kind of video game.

"Cas, I can't swim." Dean remarked bluntly.

"Still, I can teach you." Cas remarked.

"Are you sure? Isn't it hard?" Dean inquired, completely new to the world of swimming.

"Nah, it'll be fine. So are you coming then?" Cas continued.

"I guess… Wait, I don't have any swimming trunks!" Dean said, trying to worm his way out of the situation. The desperation obvious in his voice.

"C'mon, Dean it won't be that bad!" Cas reassured. And you can lend a pair of mine.

Dean finally submitted, he liked seeing Cas happy and they enjoyed the same things, so he guess he would enjoy this too. "Okay then, I'll go."

"Great! Meet me at mine at 12?" Cas said.

"Sure, see you Cas!" Dean returned, saying goodbye to his friend, not having realised they had walked down to the door while talking.

* * *

Surely enough, Dean did enjoy swimming and got the hang of it. However, when it came to jumping off the diving boards, Dean refused to do so. However, he fervently denied being scared of heights, even though the word 'scared' didn't cover his complete and utter detest for them.

This enjoyment for swimming lead to it being another of the activities that the boys regularly did, and it was encouraged by their parents due to the fact that they would have a head start for year 3, when swimming became compulsory.

* * *

The weeks rolled by and the end of the year came along. The year 2 students were all getting talks about how year 3 was different and everything changed. But one thing that Dean and Cas knew wouldn't change, is their friendship. They planned on keeping it going even with the changes happening.


	4. Year 3

**Year 3:**

Year 3 indicated the start of a new era of the two boys' schooling, year 3 came with a lot of changes, but not all of them were bad. They began to get regular homework, more opportunities for extra-curricular clubs were opened to them, they also began to have more of a choice in what they did and didn't do, rather than being heavily guided and influenced by what the teachers said. Also, they began to have compulsory swimming lessons every Wednesday and there wasn't a break time in the afternoon. However, even with all of these changes and alterations to their usual routine for school, it didn't faze the boys and they continued their journey through the years of school.

* * *

Year 3 started out pretty normally, with just a couple of playground tiffs and some overly dramatic fall-outs amongst the girls, but it was all to be expected. These little disputes between other members of their year group didn't really apply to Dean or Cas, due to the fact that they didn't really get involved with the other children. They weren't disliked though, which meant that they didn't get many funny looks or rude comments, but one day, this all changed. A few of the boys had caught onto something that Cas was hiding from everyone, Dean included, and today proved why he did so.

It was a Tuesday morning, and nothing much was going on, Cas was sitting on the playground by himself, because Dean had to use the toilet. Cas was very contently just thinking to himself when a band of boys approached him, with one of the boys being slightly further forwards than the others. Cas knew him decently well, he was one of the few people who gave him trouble at school, his name was Crowley. Crowley walked up to Cas and looked at him, readying to say something, but Cas got in the first word.

"Hello Crowley." Cas said, with a solemn voice.

"Haha, it's Cassie!" Crowley said, with mockery clear in his tone. "I don't see your boyfriend, did he run away?" The band of boys cackled like witches at this comment.

"My boyfriend?" Cas questioned, even though he knew who they were on about.

"You know, Dean?" The more intimidating figure said. "Did he find out how much of a girl you are?" Crowley sneered.

"I'm boy, not a girl though?" Cas questioned, completely unaware at what the bully was to trying to get at. "How am I a girl?"

"Cassie plays the piano, like a little princess, don't you?" Crowley replied, clearly aware of his superior position in this conversation. "Do you have dresses and do tea parties with Dean?"

Cas was losing his patience, he was becoming more irate with every word that Crowley was spouting out, but what ticked him off the most was the fact that he dragged Dean into this, even though Cas didn't tell Dean about playing the piano so he wouldn't be subject to the tormenting. However, even though was angry and all he wanted to do with retort a witty comment, he remained silent.

Crowley picked up on the silence and decided to take it to the next level, "Dean and Cassie sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S" Crowley started chanting before a fist connected with his face.

Cas had, had enough, he walloped Crowley in the face, and his bully tumbled back. Crowley hadn't expected the punch, but he didn't let it bother him, he stood back up ready to fight and lifted his left arm up to block the smaller, blue eyed boy's punch. What he didn't realise was, even though lifting his left arm usually blocked punches, Cas was left handed, so a second punch connected with his face and blood splattered out of his nose and onto Cas' fist and the playground. This is when Crowley's cohorts decided they needed to get involved, but then they all hurt a shout across the playground.

"Get off him you idiots!" Dean roared, running to Cas' side. These bullies had sparked Dean's protective flair, which was reserved solely for Castiel.

"Haha, Cassie's boyfriend's here now!" Retorted one of Crowley's friends. He was about to swing at Dean, but Dean got these first, getting him in the stomach.

Dean was ready to fling a comment at the boy, until two large figures came dashing over, separating the two parties of boys from each other, "That is ENOUGH!" The taller figure roared. "There is NO fighting at this school! All of you shall serve detention!" She glowered at the boys. "Dean and Castiel, you shall do detention for the rest of this week." She turned, "And you three, all of next week."

As much as the boys wanted to, they decided not to argue, because they knew it would get them in any more trouble. Instead, Dean turned to Cas and looked him right in those blue eyes.

"Cas, are you okay?" Dean questioned, worry clear in his voice.

"Yeah… I am… He just made me mad…" Cas replied, his voice heavy from the exertion of beating the living daylight out of someone. "Maybe he'll leave me alone now?" Cas smirked.

"I hope so!" Dean remarked. "He got beaten up really bad!"

Dean and Cas then went back inside with the teacher, to pursue their punishment, because neither of them were up for a fight with teachers too.

* * *

So the next day, they both sat in detention, which was supposed to make them feeling guilty of what they did, but both boys sat next to each other, smirking at what they did. They knew it probably wasn't right to have punched the boys, but each boy had their reason for doing it for which the consequences of the actions were severely outweighed by the results of it. Cas was pleased because he proved he could stick up for himself, but mainly because he stuck up for Dean. Dean however, he was pleased that the bullying may have stopped and that Cas might finally be left alone by Crowley and his band of goons.

"Hey Cas, sorry that you got detention." Whispered Dean.

Cas tilted his head to the side and squinted, then looked at Dean, "Why are you sorry? I punched him." Cas questioned.

"I still feel bad, you've never had detention before." Dean said, trying to convince Cas that there was something he was able to be sorry for.

"You've only had one, it's fine. It's not your fault." Cas reassured.

Dean chose this moment to ask a question which had been teasing him. "I heard Crowley's mate say you played the piano when I walked up to him. Why didn't you tell me?" Dean inquired.

"I didn't want you to think I was girly…" Cas murmured.

"I don't think it's girly, it's cool you can play an instrument!" Dean remarked a little too loudly.

Then the teacher on watch heard Deans remark and had seen them constantly whispering to each other, "Castiel, Dean. Stop talking unless you want to be in here next week as well."

In unison they responded, "Sorry sir…" They then both turned to each other and smirked. It was a silent agreement to shut up, just so that they could make it past this week without any more trouble. But for Cas it was also to thank Dean for not judging him for playing the piano.

* * *

Even though Cas had thought the worst of it was over, when he met his older brother on the playground to go home, that was soon changed. Gabriel was looking at him with a look of concern, with his secondary school uniform and the red and black stripy tie that he didn't have pulled all the way up. Gabriel was four years older than Castiel and was in year 7.

"Hey Cassie, I heard what happened at school today, are you okay?" Gabriel inquired with a lollypop in his mouth. "Did you get him good?" He smirked.

"Hello Gabriel, can you please stop calling me Cassie? That's what Crowley said and it ended badly for him." Cas replied, a little proud of himself.

"Haha, excellent! I'm glad you stuck up for yourself, little bro. But next time, maybe don't go that far? Mom isn't pleased with you." Gabriel responded with a shudder, scared for his little brother's fate at the hand of his mother.

"Oh dear… I forgot about mom? Is she mad?" Cas inquired, worried himself.

"Mad is an understatement…" Gabriel muttered.

"Understatement? What's that?" Cas asked, even though he was a smart boy for being 7 years old, he wasn't a genius.

"It's when you say something, and it's making it sound less important or big than it actually is." Gabriel responded, who wasn't the brightest himself, but knew what an understatement was.

"Oh dear, mom is really angry then?..." Cas sighed.

"Yeah, kiddo. Good luck." Gabriel replied, feeling very pitiful towards to Cas.

* * *

Dean didn't even have to go to Castiel's house to know he was in trouble, he could hear the shouts of his mother across the street. He decided to wait a bit before plodding over the road to his house, so that it might all calm down. He'd already received his talking off his dad, and it wasn't pretty, but nowhere near as bad as what Cas was receiving.

An hour or so later, he called to his dad to say he was going to Cas' house, and he walked across the road reading to see his friend. But before he got to the door, he saw Cas' brother Gabriel open the door to him.

"Hey Deano. He's upstairs, you might want to talk to him. Mom gave him a real shouting at." Gabriel said, hoping that maybe he best friend might be able to stop Cas' crying.

Dean plodded up the familiar stairs and knocked on Cas' door and heard a very muffled and teary 'Come in'.

"Hey Cas, it'll be fine." Dean reassured. "Your mom is just annoyed that you got detention. She'll get over it."

Through the tears, Cas managed to say, "Yeah, but I got grounded for two weeks, so that means we can only see each other at school…"

Dean was shocked by this, "Oh… At least we can see each other." Dean tried to pick up the pieces of this situation. "I should go then, to stop you from getting in anymore trouble. I'll see you tomorrow as school." And with that Dean went home.

Gabriel heard this little exchange, and smiled. He knew that they were close friends, but the fact that Dean could just walk in and have a conversation with him when Cas wouldn't talk to Gabriel about it proved he was special. "I can see those two going far." He muttered to himself, but their sister Anna who was in year 6 heard too.

"Yeah, they'll be friends for a long time." She replied.

* * *

It was the final week of the spring term before the Easter holidays, and the boys were at their compulsory swimming lesson which took place every Wednesday afternoon. They were walking up to the top of the 25 metre pool, to go back to the instructor of the one but top group. Dean and Cas were the only two in this group, due to the fact that they were the best swimmers in year 3. They were talking to each other and then all of a sudden, Dean slipped. His head ricocheted off of the pool side and he fell into the pool completely unconscious.

Cas managed to react quickly enough and grabbed Dean's limp hand before he sank under the water and pulled him up to the side of the pool, and then he was ushered away by the other swimming instructors, one of which was phoning the hospital. At this point, Cas became very worried for his friend because he saw all of the blood. He burst into tears at the thought of his friend being unconscious, however one of the nurses saw that he was crying and came over to reassure him.

"Hello young man, what's your name. Mine's Chloe." Said the nurse.

"Castiel… Cas for short…" He said. "Is Dean okay?"

"Yeah, we're just taking him to the hospital to fix him up. He'll be fine." The nurse smiled back at him. "I know you're upset, but could you go and get changed with the other kids, please."

"Okay." Cas whimpered and then got up to go with the others to kids to get changed.

* * *

Dean ended up missing the entire of Thursday off from school and Cas was completely lost. He had nobody to hang around with at lunch until a blonde came over and sat with him.

"Hey Castiel, I'm Jo. I know we aren't friends. But I want to change that." Jo spoke, with cheer in her voice.

"Hello Jo, call me Cas." Cas responded. "Where are your other friends?"

"I haven't really got any, I only started here last week. But I saw you and Dean and you seemed nice." Jo smiled. "I do have one friend though, you know Charlie?"

"Yeah, I've never talked to her though." Cas responded. "Where is she?"

"Oh she's inside still doing some maths questions, she really likes maths." Jo chuckled.

"I do too, but I like playtime more." Cas remarked. "And you said you wanted to change us being not friends? I say were are friends now."

"Yay! I can't wait to talk to Dean!" Jo beamed. "I'd better go and get Charlie, see you in a minute."

"Bye Jo." Cas responded.

Cas and Charlie also managed to hit it off and started talking about books which Jo had never read. The three hung around with each other the rest of the week and promised to talk again after the Easter holidays when Dean was back. Cas couldn't wait to see Dean during the holidays when he was better.

* * *

The Easter holidays came and went, and Cas went to see Dean after he had fully recovered and they shared a hug and continued their lives, and Cas talked about Jo and Charlie who Dean was delighted to hear about and couldn't wait to see them.

The first day of school came around and Dean met with Charlie and Jo and they also hit it off. Dean seemed to like Charlie a little more than Jo because they had common ground to talk about. Star Wars. Cas, Dean and Charlie all talked for the entire of break time and lunchtime on the first day about Star Wars while Jo absorbed all the information she could about these mysterious films she had never heard about. By the end of the week the four were inseparable. But even though Cas and Dean had made some more friends, they still stuck close to each other and Jo and Charlie stuck together. They all began meeting up at each other's houses, and doing things outside of school. To Dean and Cas' surprise, Charlie and Jo lived on the street next to theirs so it was easy to get to their houses. The two boys and girls had formed a strong kinship, all because of the slightly outgoing girl Joanna Beth Harvelle who insisted on becoming friends with Castiel.

* * *

Finally, the last day of year 3 rolled around the four of them were ready to tackle year 4 and start learning new things and forming new memories. The memories wouldn't only come from one class though, since Charlie and Jo were in the other class, so they could tell Dean and Cas and vice versa about what occurred in their lessons. But even though they were sad to see year 3 go past them, because it was such a crucial year for the four's friendships, they were happy to be growing up and were looking forward to what awaited them.


	5. Year 4

**Year 4:**

Year 4 started on a pretty rocky note in comparison to previous years. It was only the second day of school and an issue had already cropped up. It was break time and the group was meeting up in their usual corner of the playground. It was shaded by the trees and there a paper bin in the corner which the four usually hung around by.

"Hey Dean, where's Cas?" Jo inquired. "I can't find him anywhere and he's usually always with you."

"Hey Jo!" Dean called. "But Cas, I don't know. He didn't come to school today. I'll go over his house and find out after school if he's alright."

"Oh okay, I'll come with you- Ooomph" Jo breathed after being collided with by Charlie. "Hey Charlie…" She continued with a groan.

"Hey guys, you seen Cas?" Charlie questioned, completely oblivious to the exchange between Dean and Jo prior to her arrival. "I can't see him anywhere."

"I think he's sick Charlie, me and Jo are going after to school to see if he's okay. Y'know, you could come too?" Dean inquired. "If he's sick, I bet he'd like to see his friends!"

"Yeah, okay. I'll come. Meet me in front of my house? My mom and dad won't let me go unless you guys come and get me." Charlie sighed, already getting annoyed at her parents' protectiveness, and she's only nine years of age.

"Okay, we're going straight after school. Meet you in front of Charlie's house, Jo?" Dean said.

"Yeah sure. I'll see you guys later. I have a stupid violin lesson… I can't believe my mom made me play it… Ugh!" Jo groaned, angry at the fact she has to waste her time playing a musical instrument. "How does Cas do it? Practising every week kills me!"

* * *

The band of three made their way to Cas' house, after managing to coax Charlie's parents into letting her out. Even then they still lost the battle and said she could only be out for an hour to see Cas. However, they still plodded their way over to their friend's or best friend's (in Dean's case) house to see what unknown infliction that he had acquired.

Dean knocked on the door of the very clean looking house, preparing himself for the worst. He was dearly hoping that it was nothing serious. But his fears were soon quashed by Cas' brother Gabriel.

"Hey Deano!" Gabriel exclaimed. "Now's probably not a good time to play, since Cas isn't very well."

"We didn't come to play, we came to find out what was wrong, since he wasn't at school. We were worried he might be dying!" Dean replied, worry seeping its way into his tone.

Cas' mother chose this moment to turn around the corner and saw the boy and two girls. "Hello Dean, Jo and Charlie. Are you here to see Cas?" She questioned.

"Yes ma'am, we are." Jo replied. "We came to see if he's okay, since he wasn't at school today."

"As kind as it is that you've come and seen him, It's probably not a good idea." Cas' mother replied, her voice solemn. "He's gotten chickenpox, which is contagious and I wouldn't want any of you getting it."

"Can't you only get chickenpox once? I heard that once you got it, you can't get it again till you're an adult. So wouldn't I be fine, since I have had it before?" Dean inquired, trying his hardest to see his ill companion.

"That's not entirely true. You can still get it but you're very unlikely to. I'd rather not risk getting you lot ill too." Cas' mother continued, clearly standing her ground on her decision.

"Oh okay then. Can you tell Cas we came and visited, please?" Dean replied, conjuring a genuine smile on his face, and then turning around the face the door with Jo and Charlie.

"I definitely will. Bye, you three!" Cas' mother replied.

"Bye!" The three replied in unison.

After leaving Cas' house the three then wandered over to Dean's house because Charlie still had around 45 minutes till she had to go home and they wanted to make the most of the time they had. While walking across the completely empty road Charlie just randomly spouted out some meaningless gossip.

"Oh my God, guys. Crowley asked out Cassie today!" Charlie exclaimed. "It was really funny. She just went 'No way, you're an idiot' and Crowley ran out the classroom with a bright red face." Charlie chuckled, obviously amused by the memory.

"How did I not see this? Did it happen when I was in my stupid violin lesson!?" Jo also exclaimed, clearly distressed by the fact she wasn't there. "I can't wait to give it up…"

"Yeah it, happened in our Art lesson. He cut out a heart out of pink paper too." Charlie giggled. "See Dean, our class is way better than yours."

"Nah, mine has me and Cas in it. That makes it the best class!" Dean exclaimed, jokingly trying to prove his and Cas' superiority.

"But does anything interesting actually ever happen?" Charlie shot back.

"Yeah… We… Let me think…" Dean tried, completely overwhelmed by Charlie in this dispute.

"See, your class is crap!" Charlie exclaimed.

"Nah, your class is the crap one! You have Crowley in it." Dean retorted while opening the door.

However, what Dean didn't know was that John Winchester was standing the kitchen when he heard Dean say this. When he heard Dean, his ears pricked up at the interesting choice of words chosen by his eight year old son.

"Dean! Crap isn't a word you should be using at your age!" The older man scolded. "If I hear you say it again, there'll be big trouble, mister!"

"Sorry Dad…" Dean murmured. "Can we go upstairs?"

"Sure, just mind what you say." John said, with a normal expression. He wasn't particularly angry, but just wanted to make sure that his boys didn't get in trouble.

* * *

The two weeks were up, and Cas was finally able to have some contact with his friends through school. But he was still not allowed to have his friends around just in case someone in his household had caught it. He'd actually gotten better after around a week, but waited another week to be rid of all the scabs from the spots, just so he wouldn't have to deal with them at school.

But even though he was only away from his friends for two weeks, he was still nervous. He didn't know why he was nervous because his friends wouldn't just push him away after two weeks, and they tried to visit him numerous times to make sure he was okay. So, even though he was nervous, he pushed the funny feeling he couldn't describe to the pit of his stomach and trekked up the stairs onto the playground away from his brother who had brought him there.

When he reached the top of the stairs, he couldn't see his three companions anywhere. This only helped justify why he was nervous, he thought that they had left him and didn't want anything to do with him. That was, until, Dean came crashing into him and enveloping him in an embrace.

"Cas!" Dean exclaimed! "You better now? Lessons were rubbish without you, they made me sit next to Sophie. She still hasn't forgive you for breaking up with her." Dean continued to babble.

"Hello Dean. I am better now, thanks." Cas replied in his usual tone. "And why did they make you sit next to Sophie of all people?"

"I don't know, but at least I don't have to sit by her anymore. She was really annoying." Dean complained.

"Yeah, I know. I had to sit next to her last year and she just kept talking and talking…" Cas sighed.

What Cas hadn't realised is the fact that sometime between Dean colliding with him and that comment being made, he had wrapped his arms around Dean's torso to return the hug. However, what neither of them realised is that they were both still hugging and they had easily exceeded the limits of a normal hug. This meant that some of the older kids were giving them weird stares, but Castiel, for the life of him, couldn't understand why. But then it clicked. Maybe they thought they were boyfriends? But everyone knew they weren't so it didn't particularly concern him, but he still chose to break off the hug. While this occurred, Charlie and Jo appeared to ask Cas how he was too, but they didn't give him a hug like Dean did.

While walking past, a couple of the year 6 children noticed this exchange of embraces and smiled.

"They'll be friends for a while, they don't even care that people are staring." One of the said.

"Yeah, proves that they're best friends." The other said. Who then interlocked her arm with her friend and continued to walk.

* * *

It was a Friday lunchtime, the last Friday lunchtime in fact before the Christmas holidays, because they broke up later that day. After Cas fell ill, nothing bad had happened for Dean and his friends for the rest of the term, until that day. What happened was by far the worst thing Dean had ever encountered so far in his little school career. Someone was picking on Sammy.

If anyone knew well enough, they knew that Dean would defend Sammy with his life, since he often had to look after him for short periods of time while his Dad did a couple hours of work, or went to the supermarket. This was largely because John was an only parent and had two young sons he needed to provide for, but he had told Dean what to do if someone did try to break into the house. This sense of responsibility though, stuck with Dean at all times which meant he was undyingly faithful to his little brother. So when someone thought they could pick on little Sammy, hell was about to break loose. But when he saw who was picking on his brother, he knew he couldn't just go in and start swinging punches, since it was two kids out of his year, which is year 1. This, much to Dean's dismay meant that he'd have to go and talk to the children because he'd get in ounces of trouble for battering some five or six year olds.

Dean proceeded to walk over, with Cas, towards the Sam and the two boys he could see prodding and shoving his little brother. This distressed him, but what tore him apart was little Sammy's face, red and the verge of tears with a look of complete unease on his face. This is what caused Dean to spring into action.

"Hey! You two!" Dean shouted which caused the two boys to turn around in terror. "What do you think you're doing to Sam?"

"We're playing." One of them muttered, completely scared out of his mind because of the boy in front of him.

"Prodding and pushing is playing? That's bullying! So leave Sam alone, and tell your friends too. Or I will come back again." Dean snarled with a look, that if looks could kill, would have melted and evaporated the two bullies.

One of the boys sniffled obviously scared, and ran off. The other was about to follow suit, but turned around to say. "Sorry! We won't do it again!" and then proceeded to follow his sniffling friend.

Sam was still sniffling after his little ordeal with the bullies, but Dean sat on the floor and looked up at his brother in the eyes and sincerely asked, "Are you okay Sammy, did they hurt you?"

"Nope." Sam said then sniffled and held back the tears. "They were being mean though." Sam couldn't help but shedding a few tears and then running into his big brother and surrounding him with his arms.

"What were they saying?" Dean questioned while wrapping his arms around little Sammy.

"They were saying that I was stupid and that I was a fairy princess…" Sam muttered, being embarrassed at the fact that he had to repeat that to his older brother.

"Well then, they're stupid. They're really the fairy princesses, but are too big of wusses to admit it." Dean said, trying to reassure his brother that he's not a fairy princess.

Sam laughed at this and squeezed his brother tighter. The sight of this made Cas smile and somewhat wish that he could give that kind of affection to someone. But at the same time, he is glad that Anna didn't do that for him while she was here, due to the fact that he got to show the bullies what he was made of, and he hasn't had any trouble since. He was glad that he could sort his own problems out. It's not like he had much of a choice, since he didn't want to get Dean involved, even though he inevitably did, and Anna had decided not to get involved in Castiel's school life to make sure he did learn how to deal with his own problems. But even after all of this, a small of part of him wishes he could do what Dean is doing now.

While Cas was trapped in his own thoughts, Dean had managed to calm down Sam and let hit little brother run off to his friends. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Hey Cas, want to go find Jo and Charlie?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, sure. It's nice that you look out for Sam." Cas replied, eager to remark on Dean's brotherly behaviour.

"I just feel like I have to look after him." Dean shrugged. "I'd hate to see him get hurt. I would hate seeing you get hurt too." Dean admitted.

"Yeah, me too." Cas agreed. "Want to find Jo and Charlie now?"

"Yeah, sure." Dean replied.

* * *

It was the first week of the summer term for the four of them, and school were encouraging the students to 'leave their comfort zones' and they put it, even though Dean wasn't entirely sure what that meant. One of the main things the school pushed for was for students years 4-6 to attend extracurricular clubs. While Dean and Cas attend a fair few, they wanted to go to more and one of the ones being offered this summer, in preparation for next year was football. Cas thought that Dean liked football and would want to go, even though he had noticed that Dean hadn't mentioned anything to do with football since before year 3. He'd just presumed that it was because Cas didn't care for football, so Dean didn't talk to him about it.

So while sitting in an English lesson for the last 35 minutes of the day, Cas was ready to suggest the idea of going to the football club, even though he hated football he was willing to go to make his friend happy.

"Hey Dean. Do you want to go to football club?" Cas whispered.

"Cas, don't you hate football?" Dean asked, confused at why his best friend would suggest this.

"Yeah, I do. But I thought you liked it, and that you would want to go. So I asked if you wanted to go, and I would go with you so you would have a friend there." Cas explained.

"I thought you knew I didn't like football anymore?" Dean asked, a little disappointed in his lack of communication with the blue eyed boy.

"Oh, I didn't know. So you don't want to go?" Cas asked.

"Nah, football's boring. I like cars more. But…" Dean said, not finishing his sentence.

"But what?" Cas asked, confused at why his friend had suddenly stopped.

"Wouldyouliketogotocookingclubinstead?" Dean blurted out as fast as he could. After saying this, his face lit up a vivid scarlet colour.

"Cooking? Sure. It sounds like fun. Why did you say it so fast?" Cas questioned, clearly oblivious to Dean's embarrassment.

"I thought you would laugh at me, and call me girly…" Dean muttered.

"Why would I do that? We're best friends, I wouldn't laugh at you… I play the piano and you didn't laugh at that?" Cas said, trying to prove to Dean that he doesn't think it's 'girly' to cook.

"Oh. Sorry for being stupid…" Dean replied, guilty that he had doubted their friendship.

"It's fine, at least cooking's fun unlike football." Cas remarked, chuckling a little bit.

"Castiel, Dean. Get back to your work or you both lose a house point." Their teacher shouted.

"Yes miss." They replied unison, trying to hide the smirks that they were wearing.

* * *

Year 4 ended up being an enlightening year to Cas and Dean because it revealed large parts of their personalities which they had not being old enough to understand beforehand. But even with these realisations, they still remained best friends. If anything, it made them better friends. Even though they had grown closer, they still remained good friends with Jo and Charlie too.

Year 5 was about to open up many new opportunities for the four of them and more will be expected from them. But still, even though the world around them is changing. Dean and Cas will remain best friends and that won't ever change, or will it?


End file.
